While on the school bus going to Tinora on a rainy, cold, windy Friday, I knew I wasn’t going to play but listened to music and said nothing, while closing my eyes and thinking about the game.  This game was going to tell if we would get into the playoffs or end the season.  When we arrived, I stepped of the school bus and felt the cold wind fly by me on the way to the locker room.  I could hear the wind whistle, and I saw the rain sprinkling onto the ground.  Once we arrived to our locker room, one of my teammates told all of us, “Be quite and focus on the game.”  It was crippling cold outside, so I looked around and everyone was bundling up to stay warm.  The whole entire time until it was time to go out on the field for our warm up, I heard nothing in that locker room.  When it was the time to go out, our coach said, “It’s time to go to war men!”  Then we left the locker room and walked out to the field.
Once we hit that wet, green field, I felt nothing but a strong cold wind and sprinkling rain.  When we were doing our stretches, all my muscles in my body tightened up and my body starting to shiver, and I didn’t want to be out there.  The wind started to pick up speed, and when I had to do passing, my ball would just went with the wind, and it messed up my pass.  I watched Tinora, our opponents, come to the field; they had a team the size of an army.  By the time warm up ended, it started to snow/rain, and it was really windy.  I started to get goose bumps because the wind and snow/rain was hitting me.  We went into the locker to just relax for a little bit.  Nobody made a sound as we all listened to the song that was playing on the speaker.
Finally, it was time to kickoff the game.  Coach gathered us all together and said, “This game will have to take toughness, aggressiveness, and pride.”  When we walked out of the locker room, we heard all the wind hit buildings and our helmets.  We passed many fans who were cheering us on, and some who weren’t cheering us on.  When we step onto the field, we kneeled down and said a prayer while the rain fell hard on us, and wind was blowing on us.  By that time, everyone on the sideline was soaking wet and shivering.
The game started, and right away Tinora scored on open kick off.  All I heard was the Tinora crowd yelling, and I saw the Tinora players jumping up and down slapping hands.  Then our coach was yelling, “Wake up and stop playing soft like feathers and be ready for a long football game!”  The cold air had my hands, feet, face, and arms so numb.  I couldn’t move a muscle without them tightening up.  I knew I would be on the sidelines for a long time.
The second quarter took evermore to start. I felt like just going home, but no one could leave the sidelines.  The team had been playing fairly well but not well enough; we still didn’t have the lead or scored a touchdown yet.  Our coach was furious when they scored another touchdown, and while I shivered, all I heard was coach yelling, “C’mon it’s going to take more effort out of you guys!”  Luckily, one of the seniors stepped into the huddle and said, “I will not lose to Tinora my final year!”  That set off the team for another attitude.  After that we were moving the ball up the field.  Before we knew it, we finally score on a forty-five yard pass into the wind.  The whole team including me was jumping around yelling and the coaches yelling, “Good job!”  Then we kicked it off, and they had two plays before halftime.  They didn’t do anything, so we headed to the locker room.
During halftime coach said, “We need to move the ball again and again and again!”  We all knew we could beat this team, but it would take guts and glory to do it.  All of us were willing to give it all we had.  It felt really pleasant in the locker room.  My whole entire body was starting to get warm and relax.  I didn’t want to leave the warm locker room to go back outside to stand in the cold and snowy weather.  It was time to go back outside and finish the last two quarters of that wicked football game.
The third quarter was about to begin.  My buddies and I were on the sidelines shivering, trying to stay warm.  We decided to start to jump up and down to try to keep up warm.  It actually worked!  We started to do that and we were really focusing into the game.  We started to shout and cheer the varsity on.  It was halfway through the quarter, and before we knew it, we scored again!  Our team was on a roll, and we weren’t going to stop!  All I heard was Ayersville’s fantastic, furious, ferocious crowd just screaming and blowing their air horns.  It was an awesome feeling just being apart of the team at that moment.  We were going crazy.  My hands started to get the feeling back, and my legs were loosening up because I was jumping around so much.  At the end of the quarter Tinora made a field goal, which gave them a ten-point lead.
I was very excited for the game almost to be over, but at the same time, I didn’t want this game to end!  I can’t even explain the weather my team and I were standing in.  I couldn’t stand still for not even one second in that rainy/snowy/windy weather.  It was the most terrifying time to be out there!  The game was all that mattered at that time.  Tinora had scored another time, which gave them even more of a lead.  Coach was getting frustrated at what to call because they were stopping our offense drives.  All of a sudden we scored another time at the one-yard line.   We really had to push the ball into the end zone!  It was turning to be a close game; all of us could see that Tinora was scared because the fans were quite.  Then all of sudden, we had the ball back, and we drove it to their goal line again to get the lead!  There was less that two minutes of the game, and the team was getting energetic because we could’ve beat the undefeated team!  The gloomiest play happened; Tinora stopped us on the five-yard from scoring.  Then they had the ball and just wasted the time.  We had lost to Tinora by ten points; all of us were beaten because to the loss.  The words coach had to state made us feel a little bit better. 
The lesson learned to all of us is that anything is possible at anytime, but we had to finish it instead of leave it short.  The weather was in all of our minds in the first quarter, maybe if we would’ve not let it get to our minds we could have scored or something.  It was over, and we didn’t make the playoffs.  We had a tremendous year, but it was over.  We all were going to miss it, but there is always next year!  I will never forget how close we were to beating this team, and the weather, and the feeling to play with my teammates.